I’m after an everyday bike for commuting (all of 1/2 a mile or so), shopping, lugging toddlers about on etc.

It’ll be stored outside (in Manchester!) so has to be pretty rainproof, so some sort of Dutch bike style thing is ideal.

Anyone have ideas of where to look, specific brands to look at/avoid, ideas re. converting to hub gears or rainproofing regular derailleur gears etc etc?

Preferences:
Hub gears
Full chaincase (or possibility to fit one)
Not weighing 50kg if possible (want to be able to pedal up hills with a child seat fitted!)
Must have rack/mounts
Budget price… if buying new then a max of £200 or so

Best I have found so far is probably this, slightly over budget: https://hollandbikeshop.com/en-gb/buying-a-bicycle/excelsior-bicycles/excelsior-city-bicycles/excelsior-men-s-bike/excelsior-touring-men-s-bike-28-inch-55cm-1v-black/

All suggestions/advice/helpful comments/not helpful comments/jokes are appreciated 🙂

1/2mile, it’ll take you longer to lock it up than it would to walk!

I’ve just got a Charge cooker and use it for my 25mile each way commute (surprisingly only about 15% slower than the road bike) and shopping trips with a trailer.  No rack mounts though. Why not just get something like a 26″ singlespeed inbred off ebay,? They’ve got pannier and guard mounts, it won’t have hub gears, but then it’s one less thing to maintain and if you want a sit-up-and-beg type bike just fit a really low gear to start with.  I can still tow a surprising amount up and over the motorway bridge despite 32-14, 32-18ish would twiddle up just about anything on the road.

vitus dee

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/s?q=vitus+dee&cat=direct

wait until September and it will be discounted even further. I picked up a single speed last year for £150

I’ve got the poo brown Vitus ^ as my cycle to work bike.  It’s fine but was a total pain to fit full length mud guards to.

Given the distances involved, a wheelbarrow?

I’d knock something up out of bits and bobs, then try and make it look as shit as possible.

Skateboard

I’ve got the poo brown Vitus ^ as my cycle to work bike.  It’s fine but was a total pain to fit full length mud guards to.

On that note, does anyone know of a fork bung to fit guards to a fork without a drilled crown? I’ve some 65mm blumells but can’t figure out how I’m going to attach them.

I ended up drilling a steel fork to allow me to fit guards – with a slight extension as it was a suspension corrected rigid fork.

One option I looked at was if I could fit a star nut into the bottom of the fork and then drill the guard and just bolt through. It would be an almighty pain if I ever had to remove either star nut but I would have just dealt with it (cheap forks). I couldn’t use this method in the end as the internal diameter at the bottom of the fork was slightly larger than at the top.

Drill the guards, and put a couple of zip ties around the fork crowns.

Look out on Gumtree or eBay for a Real Classic. Sturmey Archer 3 speed, 36 spoke wheels, V brakes, sturdy rack, kickstand, guards, full chain case. Should get one for £50-100 if you’re patient. Only problem with outside is chroming on the handlebar is crap, it’ll go rusty, so give it a dose of laquer or something first.

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NzY4WDEwMjQ=/z/3swAAOSwi7RZLTw0/$_86.JPG

I do occasionally ride more than 1/2 a mile…

Plus I already have a wheelbarrow. Call this the n+1 itch 😉

Look out on Gumtree or eBay for a Real Classic. Sturmey Archer 3 speed, 36 spoke wheels, V brakes, sturdy rack, kickstand, guards, full chain case. Should get one for £50-100 if you’re patient. Only problem with outside is chroming on the handlebar is crap, it’ll go rusty, so give it a dose of laquer or something first.

This is where I’ve been looking, trying to find something within the right price & distance is range is proving tricky. Possibly the “if you’re patient” bit is the problem…

Elephant Bike for £250. Perfect for lugging loads of shopping etc. https://elephantbike.co.uk

TBH I did the whole “just buy something old off ebay/gumtree”, twice in fact.

On both occasions it turned out old and cheap was really just crap and worn out.

I can see the appeal of having something good looking and retro to potter about on, but the reality is that unless you strip it down to a bare frame (and get that powder coated) then re build it with all new moving parts.  What you’re actually buying is bike that was probably cheap 40 years ago, and whilst component quality has gone up significantly in the meantime, it’s just been getting more and more worn out!

If you get a proper Dutch bike then you won’t need to do anything. Even if it is 40 years old. I have one that gets left outside every day and night, does 8 miles every day, yet is still zero maintenance. Hub brakes and gears, chain case, dynamo, mudguards blah blah blah. Most parts are stainless, and ace mudguards keep everything that isn’t clean and rust free. A cable adjustment is literally all that really ever gets done. Oil the chain once a year maybe.

its probably 35 years old. I recovered it from a garden where it had been lying for a number of years. Air in the tyres and off it went.

If you find one that wasn’t that cheap in the first place, from one of the proper brands (gazelle, batavus etc), it’ll just work. And keep working.

Oh yeah. Unisex frame FTW

eg

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F183350058650

midlifecrashes

Look out on Gumtree or eBay for a Real Classic. Sturmey Archer 3 speed, 36 spoke wheels, V brakes, sturdy rack, kickstand, guards, full chain case.

If you buy a proper classic, ie an old British bike it need not cost much and they are eminently repairable. They are much better quality than those £2-300 bikes.

If you find one that’s been stored in a shed, odds are it’s ok and has been maintained. All it is likely to need is new tyres and tubes and some oil dribbled into the hubs and BB. The chrome may look past it but will shine up ok – it’s better quailty than most these days. Don’t be put off it it has been hand painted – that’s a result of effective period advertising by a brand called Robbielac. Apparently an amateur using a brush and their product could get a finish just like a new bike. Yup, not likely then or now, but it usually means the stove enamel underneath is in good nick.

I paid £25 for this 1947 Rudge. It’s got stainless steel rims and spokes, full chaincase, and lights. Its chain was still well within wear limits because it lived in an oilbath. It’s probably done well over 50,000 miles and is good for the same again IMO.

I’ve put new tyres on it, gave it a bit of a fettle, and have been abusing it ever since.

And in case you’re worried about and old bike being reliable, I took it for a 150km ride last week  which included some very rough tracks.

1/2 a mile and a £200 budget?

Fixed or SS (maybe with a Lower than typical ratio for lugging kids and grocerys) surely makes better economic sense and you can spend more of your budget on guards and panniers then… Unless you have some big hills to deal with…

Take a look at a 1960s Moulton. You can carry a heap on one of those…

1/2mile, it’ll take you longer to lock it up than it would to walk!

walking pace with a toddler (and seemingly endless associated bags etc) changes the equation!

I already have a wheelbarrow. Call this the n+1 itch 😉

Another wheelbarrow, then.

does anyone know of a fork bung to fit guards to a fork without a drilled crown?

6mm drill through the fork crow – I’ve even done this with carbon forks, but I used an 8mm drill and then epoxied a piece of carbon tube in place.

I went for this in the end:

Feel very grand riding it, 6 feet off the ground.  Not sure if I should be dressed in tweeds or like a 1930’s schoolboy!

Torn between keeping it ‘vintage’ and just tweaking the rod brakes (if it’s raining, forget about stopping) or upgrading the hubs for more gears (it’s hard work uphill), drum brakes & hub dynamo with better lights, which would cost at least as much as the bike again.

Bonus mini-rant: First ride with my 2 year old in a child seat was terrifying, cars behave no different! I’m used to close passes through pinch points etc and only extreme stuff bothers me now (sadly) but aargh that was nerve wracking. Example: car reversing out of a layby on my left so I glance behind and signal right. The range rover behind overtakes, expected because he was pretty close and anyway everyone knows that sticking out the right arm is the signal for “overtake asap”. I then started moving out in the gap… What I wasn’t expecting was for the builder’s van behind him to accelerate past blowing the horn! Fuming at the idiocy of some people.

Nice.

If you need lower gears, the easiest way on that would be to put a larger sprocket on it. 3rd will still be ridiculously tall and suitable only for 35+ MPH.

If I was using it for child carrying duty, I’d probably go for a hub brake on the front, as you are right about rods, absolutely woeful!